The player makes his way along the Japanese countryside fighting enemies as they appear. The game offers three types of action: Small Mode, Big Mode and Plain Mode. Most stages have torii, which are used to transport the player to a different stage. On most stages featured in Side Mode and Plain Mode, there are multiple torii that can be entered which will lead to different routes on the map. In Big Mode, however, there is only one torii at the end of this type of stage. The leading character is a historical Japanese samurai, Taira no Kagekiyo who fell in the Battle of Dan-no-ura at the end of the Genpei War. In Genpei Tōma Den, he was resurrected and fights Minamoto no Yoshitsune and Saito Musashibo Benkei over the Imperial Regalia of Japan, as well as to defeat his enemy Minamoto no Yoritomo. The game also features the Sanzu River, a place believed in Japanese Buddhism to separate "the current life" and "the afterlife", resembling the concept of the Underworld or Hell. Therefore, some mythological characters like Emma-o, god of the Underworld, and the Sun Goddess Amaterasu appear in the game.
Release
The game's first port was released in 1988 for the Japanese Sharp X68000home computer. The game was also ported to the PC Engine and released on March 16, 1990. The PC Engine version was also released for the Wii Virtual Console. Genpei Tōma Den was also featured on the Namco Museum Vol. 4 compilation game for the PlayStation, released in 1996 in Japan and 1997 in North America and Europe. For the U.S. and European releases, the game was re-titled as The Genji and the Heike Clans. This would be the first time the original Genpei Tōma Den would make an appearance outside Japan.
Reception
In Japan, Genpei Tōma Den received acclaim, being seen among Namco's best and most-beloved arcade games. The Japanese arcade trade publicationGame Machine reported it as being among the best-selling arcade games of the year. It received multiple awards from Gamest magazine, including the sixth Grand Prize, third Best Ending, and third Best Graphic awards. The character of Kagekiyo won third place in the Best Character award. In their 1991 mookThe Best Game, readers voted it as being among the greatest arcade games of all time up to that point. Staff described Genpei Tōma Den as being "an immortal masterpiece", applauding its visuals, gameplay, soundtrack, and faithfulness to its source material. Its usage of characters such as Yoshitune and Benkei, important figures in the Heian period of Japan, also received praise. The PC Engine home release also received positive coverage. The staff of Famitsu awarded it the Gold Hall of Fame award and praised its faithfulness to the arcade original, saying that it was "a port that does not spoil the taste of the original". The magazine PC Engine FAN reported it as being among the most-popular PC Engine games, with readers voting it as being the 24th best game for the console by 1993. In contrast to other reviews, Olivier Scamps felt it was one of the worst games for the console, arguing that the game suffers from bland gameplay and uninteresting action sequences. Zenji Nishikawa of Oh!X enjoyed the Sharp X68000 version for its inclusion of new levels and secrets, finding it superior to the arcade original. Outside Japan, Genpei Tōma Den has received a more mixed reaction from critics. In their review of Namco Museum Vol. 4, IGN stated that it was the strangest of the included games, but felt its side-scrolling gameplay appealed to fans of the genre. GameSpots Jeff Gerstmann felt otherwise, believing it to be the worst title in any of the Namco Museum anthologies up to that point. He wrote that: "The Genji and the Heike Clans is a joke. Calling this an arcade classic is preposterous." A reviewer for PlayStation Official Magazine – UK compared it unfavorably to Sega's The Revenge of Shinobi, criticizing its controls for making the game unreasonably difficult to play and its difficulty for being too high. While the reviewer believed that Genpei Tōma Den was good as an arcade game, they didn't think it translated well to a home platform. In 2020, Game Watchs Tetsuya Inamoto retrospectively reviewed the PC Engine version of Genpei Tōma Den through the PC Engine Mini. He applauded the conversion's quality for being on-par with the arcade game, enjoying its "overwhelming" visuals and large character sprites. Inamoto credited the game's success with its presentation and audible voice samples, which had not been done before in arcade games, alongside its usage of real-world figures such as Minamoto no Yoritomo. In addition, he believed that the quality of the port helped establish Namco's reputation for delivering accurate renditions of its arcade games to the console, writing that it: "boasts the completeness of one of Namco's PC Engine arcade transplants, which had a reputation from the beginning. It delighted fans."
Legacy
Related games
In October 1988, Namco released a version of Genpei Tōma Denfor the Family Computer titled Genpei Tōma Den Computer Board Game. Packaged with a physical cloth game board, cards, and metallic player figures molded after Kagekiyo, it takes the form of a virtual board game where players compete against each other to conqueror all of Japan. Where as Genpei Tōma Den was a side-scrolling action game, Computer Board Game is instead a role-playing game, where players engage in battles with enemies and purchase items and equipment from stores. The idea for the game came from Namco designer Yuichiro Shinozaki wanting to further expand on the lore and world of the original game. A true sequel named Genpei Tōma Den: Kan no Ni was released in 1992 for the PC Engine. Developed by Namco and Now Production, it was published in North America by NEC Corporation as Samurai-Ghost. The game is set after the events of the original, where Kagekiyo is resurrected from the dead to prevent Yoritomo from reviving himself in the heaven world of Makai Nippon. Kan no Ni ommitts the Small and Plain mode sections, a move that was largely criticized by players and reviewers. It was re-released through the Wii Virtual Console in 2007.
Other appearances in media
Kagekiyo has made a few appearances in other video games developed by Namco. He became a featured playable character in the Wonderswan Color game Namco Super Wars. He also appeared as a playable character in the Japan-only role-playing game Namco × Capcom, where he teamed up with Heishirō Mitsurugi from the Soul series and Tarosuke from Yokai Dochuki. In addition, Yoshitsune, Benkei, Yoshinaka and Yoritomo also appeared as bosses. In Tales of Eternia, he appeared in the Aifread's Tomb dungeon, along with Rick Taylor from the Splatterhouse series, to prevent the player from advancing through certain doorways. In , there is a Kagekiyo costume to be worn. Kagekiyo's armor also appears in the character creation mode of Soulcalibur III, in which it is possible to create a character in his likeness. In Tekken 6, it is possible to customize the character Yoshimitsu in order to make him similar to Kagekiyo. It has recently been announced that the series would be resurrected as a webcomic and part of Namco Bandai's ShiftyLook series, titled Scar. The new webcomic featured cyborg samurais instead of demons. A remixed version of the game music was included in Ridge Racer V.
